What's wong with Wanganui?

Michael Laws is the one throwing hissy fits now. At a time when the world is losing stuff the mayor of the city is rejecting the New Zealand Geographic Board’s kind offer of an ‘h’. Adding a letter to the city’s name aligns it with the correctly spelt Maori name of the river Whanganui that flows through the city. It is claimed to have been named by the legendary chief Haunui (spelt with an H) who arrived on the Aotea waka over six hundred years ago.

Now I can sympathise with some aspects of Michael's reluctance to change. The name Whanganui means ‘great harbour' and clearly the city can not claim this. But once again is this another example of just how intransigent the brain is to change especially an aging male brain or are there really major problems with undergoing a name change process?

Most women in this country change their names when they marry and it is usually requires more than adding a letter. They seem to cope with it Michael.

The name is not offensive, in fact it could be argued Whanganui is more flattering. I hear some business owners claiming the cost of changing signage and stationery will send them broke. Manage the change folks.

Now Mr Laws has in the past had no end of trouble with some of the local Maori camping on his flower gardens so perhaps he is taking this opportunity to tell them ‘to stick their name in a pipe and smoke it’.

What ever his gripe surely his emotional state is diverting his attention from the city’s 'opportunity of the century'. Most businesses seize on the renaming process as a way of reconnecting with key markets. They usually beat up a real song and dance, proclaiming to the world what a change means.

What an opportunity this could be to put this town on the map, change some old paradigms, focus on what the city has to offer.
Come on Michael, don’t be such an old stick in the river mud. Embrace the change, add value to the city; the promotional opportunities are boundless.

This is something to celebrate. Welcome home your prodigal ‘h’.

The pigs are fed but unlikely to fly

At a recent conference in Auckland I was addressing a group of mainly marketing executives representing national and international cosmetics brands. I wanted to reassure them that the current economic climate should not be viewed as a recession. If you are unwilling to change the way you do business and continue to play by the old rules then I guess you could be excused from seeing it that way. This is not a recession; it is a tectonic shift in the way business is conducted. There is no point in battening down and waiting for this to pass. This is not a storm you can ride out; it is a change to completely new ways of working.
There is no point in trying to read the tea-leaves down at the stock exchange or listening to the hand wringing gnomes of finance. These people are merely historians, forensic accountants raking over the smoldering coals trying to make sense of the global melt down. They have no view of the future worth considering.
You see balance sheets merely reflect the results of our behaviour, the red figures are what is or is not left when the job is done.
What they can confirm is that business has not been delivering value, the world has been caught up in paper investments, creative accounting and misguided loyalty. We have created a climate of distrust. We have been busy doing nothing other than creating an illusion
We are now painfully aware that business relies completely on trust. If we don’t trust each other then our sphincter muscles cramp; nothing goes in and nothing comes out. Business stops.

There are plenty of examples of old world behemoths. The BNZ, antiquated and lost, their new identity is devoid of any of the three new building blocks. They waste millions of dollars on billboards and TV ads that show us their cartoon, coloured pigs, old world creativity rather than meaningful value. Go into a bank and pick up an empty cardboard box instead of a helpful brochure (another example of creativity gone mad). Ask to talk to a business manager, as I did recently and you will quickly find they know nothing about business and what advice they offer is worse than unhelpful. They will probably blunder on because of their sheer size but sharper, faster and better banking models will overtake them in time.

The news however is good.
In the new environment the three most crucial issues will be common sense, trust and value. If you can provide all of these then you will do extraordinarily well.
The future is about smart long term strategies rather than desperate short term (colourful pigs) tactics.
Not only will you need to deliver but you will also need to communicate these. There will be no point hiding what will set you apart from others.

Do such businesses exist, absolutely?
Kiwibank and ASB are at the front of this new change process. But there are others out there, smaller businesses that are founded on the three platforms and they are doing extremely well right now.

I am impressed with the clever folk Trilogy ( www.trilogy.com ) who have embarked on a campaign requesting that businesses sign up to ‘not using the R word.
Equally I suggest everyone sign up to the concept of delivering commonsense, trust and value